PW_03_2017

Professional Development

Defensive Tactics training weekend Rob Stenhouse

I am just back from another excellent Defensive Tactics training weekend at COPS International held in Uddavella Sweden. Hosted by the Swedish IPA Defensive Tactics Group and arranged by their lead Instructor Slavo Gozdzic. I have run two of these events myself and can appreciate the time and effort that goes into its organisation. It really is exhausting, so I would like to thank Slavo on behalf of all the participants. W e were picked up at the airport and taken to our accommodation, a small lodge hut in a beautiful area near to a lake. From there we were transported to and from the training venues. On the Saturday

night we all got together for a few drinks and a BBQ. My Polish colleagues were able to ply me with some of their outstandingly strong Vodka. I’m fairly sure they said 50% proof! I can’t remember (obviously!) I had the honour of forming part of the training team alongside Slavo, Keith Sinclair and Richard Dean. The training sessions were suitably hard and yet remained good humoured and relaxed. Topics included: instinctive point shooting, combat slapping system (known as Explosive Self Defence Systems - ESDS), ground fighting, defence to a pistol, realistic knife defence and switching on and off violence. I unashamedly say that you are missing out on a real treat if you don’t attend any of these courses. They are invaluable both in improving knowledge and gaining experience. We had participants from UK, Sweden, Poland, Belgium and Russia. As an old hand at these events I know quite a lot of people but was fortunate to meet some new people who I can now call my friends. It was great to see those who were new to the group meeting new people and experiencing the very different for of training we undergo. As most people will say, ‘wow, we just don’t train like this at home, every police officer should experience it’. Over the coming weeks we will post some videos of the training so you can see for yourself. Visit our Facebook and twitter pages to view them. https://twitter.com/dtg_ipa https://www.facebook.com/IPADTG https://www.facebook.com/groups/ipadtg/?fref=ts

POLICE WORLD Vol 62 No. 3, 2017

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